Port Arthur Ghost Tour

Port Arthur Travel Blog

After our gastronomic visit to Kateâ€™s Berry Farm, we were off to the Port Arthur Historic Site all the way down on the Tasman Peninsula. I donâ€™t know how much you know of the history of Port Arthur, it is an old penal colony, which is the reason it has a Historic Site status, however on the morning of Sunday 28 April 1996, a Hobart man went on a shooting spree resulting in Australiaâ€™s worst massacre with 35 people murdered and many more injured. Our visit was just after the two-year anniversary of this tragic event and the sadness of that day still hung in the air. Since our visit there has been a permanent memorial erected on the site.

We had a room booked at the Port Arthur Motor Inn, the only accommodation available on the site.

Port Arthur at dusk

All other hotels are off site. We were staying the night here because we were booked on a Ghost Tour. Ooooooo, ghosts. We met our tour guide just as the sun was setting behind the hills near the site, he was holding a lantern, which would illuminate our tour through the old buildings rumoured to be haunted by ghost of long, passed convict and free settlers (no longer) living in Port Arthur. This was an interesting way to see the site and it was quite a bit of fun. It was pretty freaky and there were certain areas that I didnâ€™t feel comfortable entering, like the basement of the Doctors house, even thinking of it now a sends a chill down my spine. We all survived the tour and unfortunately/fortunately, we didnâ€™t encounter any ghosts, well none that went bang in the night anyway.

We got back to our hotel and shook off the eerie feeling hanging over us, grabbed a bite to eat in the hotel restaurant and had a couple of stiff drinks.